


Lost and Found

by ShayneyL



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: AU, M/M, Prompt Fic, Writer's Month 2020, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25867237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShayneyL/pseuds/ShayneyL
Summary: Harry Kim finds a lost treasure, and is determined to track down its owner so he can return it.
Relationships: Harry Kim/Tom Paris
Kudos: 17
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month 2020, Day 12. The prompt is "meet cute."
> 
> This is an AU, where Tom and Harry did not meet at Deep Space Nine or end up on _Voyager_. (They already had one heck of a meet cute in the canon, so AU it is.)

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Harry was snorkling when he saw it. Something glittered in the sand, not the silver of the many fish in the area, but gold. He took a deep breath, then dived down after it. He missed the first time, but the second try, he managed to grab it.

It was a ring. Plain gold, rather large. Too large for a human woman, he would guess. He put it on his own hand to keep it safe — it was too big for his ring finger but fit his middle finger — and paddled to shore.

Sitting on the beach, he examined it. There was something engraved inside. Near as he could tell, it said _Tom and B. Elanna, Forever Love._ It must be a wedding ring. His grandparents had wedding rings. He knew such rings had once been common, but they had fallen out of fashion decades ago. He wondered about the man who had lost this ring. Probably an older man, like his grandfather. Of course gold jewelry could easily be replicated these days, but if this was the original ring from his wedding day, it might have some sentimental value. Given the man's likely age, he might now be a widower, who would treasure it in memory of his wife. Or maybe he had died, and his widow or children would want it as a memento.

But how would he get it back to his owner or his family? That would be a challenge, but Harry loved a challenge.

He tried posting a message in the "Lost and Found" section of the California community boards, but got no reply. A search of the Federation database did not turn up anything for _Tom and B. Elanna_. There were many, many people with the names Tom and Elanna; he had to find some way to winnow it down. Finally he had the idea to take the ring to a jeweler and have it scanned; some people put identifying chips in treasured possessions, in case they were lost.

No chip, but the scan revealed that the inscription inside the ring actually said _Tom and B'Elanna_ , not B. Elanna. That was very helpful. "B'Elanna" was not a common name on Earth. It was, according to the computer, a Klingon woman's name. So he was probably looking for a Klingon woman married to a man named Tom.

There was no such couple in the database, but not everyone bothered to register their marriages with the Federation. He wasn't ready to give up yet, spending some time each day searching the databases for possibilities. He had a few promising leads, but none panned out.

Then one day he found someone named Miral Paris, whose mother was named B'Elanna, and whose father was Thomas. And she lived right here in San Francisco.

Miral did not answer when he tried to comm her. Finally, he decided to go over to her house and knock on the door. She lived nearby, in a nicer section of town than Harry lived in. He signaled at the door, admiring the large, impressive home.

The door opened. "Yes?" It wasn't a woman, but a man. Tall, blond, very good-looking.

So good-looking he left Harry a bit tongue-tied. "Are you Miral's husband? Or son?" he asked, rather more bluntly than he had intended.

"I'm her father," the man said, scowling. "Are you selling something?"

"No," Harry said, surprised. He'd been so sure the ring belonged to someone elderly, he hadn't expected Miral or her father to be so young. He held out the ring on his palm. "Is this yours?"

The man looked at it, but didn't take it. "Yes. Where'd you get it?" He didn't seem happy to see it again.

"I found it while snorkeling at Lovers Cove, at Catalina Island. I've been looking for its owner for weeks."

"I threw it into the ocean because I never wanted to see it again. Put it back where you found it or recycle it, I don't care." He closed the door in Harry's face.

Harry stood on the porch of the grand house, stunned. This possibility had never occurred to him. He'd been so entranced with the idea of a couple who had grown old together and would welcome the return of this token of their love. What a waste of time it had all turned out to be. And what a naive idiot he was. "No good deed goes unpunished," he muttered to himself, then turned to leave.

The door opened behind him. "Wait. I'm sorry, Mister…?"

"Harry Kim. Call me Harry."

"Tom Paris," the man said. "You had good intentions, and you went to a lot of trouble. I shouldn't have been so rude. My marriage didn't end well, but you know, my daughter might want that ring one day. Or maybe I'll melt it down and make it into a new piece of jewelry for her."

Harry hastily went back, and handed over the ring. 

"One more thing," Tom said. "Give me your contact info? Maybe we could have dinner sometime."

Harry happily handed that over, too.


End file.
